Contents

Background

On the day of their entrance into the Academy, Rin was present when Obito Uchiha arrived with the ceremony over. She handed him his entrance documents, which he was very thankful for. When they partook in the Chūnin Exams, Rin and Kakashi Hatake stood outside the gates of the Forest of Death waiting on Obito to arrive. While in the forest, they are confronted by Guy, Genma and Ebisu. Before they could attack as a team, though, she is shocked to see Obito move to attack, but gets knocked down by Guy. She later dressed his wounds and spoke to Obito who professed his pride in his clan, and his dream to be Hokage. She later watched with bated anticipation and cheered as Kakashi fought Guy during the third round of the exams. After Kakashi became a jōnin, Rin would concoct a top secret celebration for him.[4]

During the Third Shinobi World War, Team Minato was assigned to destroy the Kannabi Bridge. During the mission, Rin was kidnapped by Taiseki during the course of the mission, and Kakkō — another one of her captors — attempted to interrogate her using genjutsu to find out if she knew anything about Konoha's war efforts. Rin's will, however, proved too strong and did not break even under the genjutsu. She was later rescued by Kakashi and Obito. Although they succeeded in rescuing her, Obito was crushed in a cave-in caused by Kakkō. Before Obito "died" however, he asked Rin to implant his Sharingan into Kakashi's left eye socket to replace the latter's damaged one. Wasting no time, Rin began the procedure immediately, after which, she and Kakashi were forced to flee when enemy reinforcements arrived and continued the cave-in. Minato would later arrive on the scene and defeat the Iwa-nin. After Kakashi had recovered, the team went on to complete their mission and destroy the bridge.[5]

In the anime, it was shown that Rin was sent out on a mission with Kakashi and Guy. With their situation looking grim, Guy used himself as a decoy to lead away the Iwagakure shinobi, and Kakashi went after him. Rin later returned with backup from Konoha, which caused the enemy-nin to retreat.[6]

Some time after the events at Kannabi Bridge, Rin was kidnapped by Kirigakure and made the jinchūriki of Isobu in order to have her be rescued so the tailed beast could be let loose within Konoha.[3] To ensure the plan's success, various jōnin and ANBU-level Kirigakure shinobi were sent to feign chasing them so that their return to the village would be hastened. Knowing this, Rin requested Kakashi to kill her to protect the village. Though Kakashi refused, Rin later intercepted Kakashi's attack, impaling herself on his hand. The Kiri-nin made an attempt to retrieve her corpse before leaving, but were stopped by an enraged Obito who had awoken his Mangekyō Sharingan after witnessing the events.[7]

Since her death, Kakashi would usually visit her grave, even sharing top-secret intel with her such as Naruto's birth as witnessed by Obito who had snuck back into the village in disguise.[8]

Personality

Rin was a sweet and friendly girl who cared deeply for her comrades as well as her village. She has been described as a kind girl and often played the role of peacemaker during Obito and Kakashi's many spats while remaining objective. Rin was also an intellectual individual, witnessed by her ability to learn as well as use high-level medical ninjutsu at such a young age. She was a devoted person as seen in her unwillingness to abandon Obito even when her own life was in great peril. She had a very strong will, as even though under what seemed to be the harshest of genjutsu, she would not break. While Obito had romantic feelings for her, this was not mutual, as Rin had romantic feelings for Kakashi instead, which were revealed only shortly after Obito was incapacitated during the cave in.[9] Rin was very dedicated to her village and willingly died rather than risk destroying it.[3]

Appearance

Rin was a young girl of fair skin and average height. She had brown hair, which was cut in a chin-length bob that framed her face, and brown eyes. She also had two rectangular, purple markings on each of her cheeks. She wore a long-sleeved black top and a light purple apron-skirt, under which she wore black shorts. She also wore the standard Konoha forehead protector, along with a pair of sandals, red stockings that stopped at her thighs, and a small,red bracelet on her left wrist.[10] While on missions, Rin carried around a backpack instead of a pouch containing her equipment.

As an Academy student, she wore a simple outfit consisting of a light-coloured blouse with a bow tied in the middle and a simple, sleeveless haori.[11] As a genin, Rin wore a light-coloured outfit with shuriken patterns over it, with a belt around her waist and several pouches. Underneath this, she wore chain-mail armour, and calf-length sandals.[12]

In the anime, during her mission with Kakashi and Might Guy, she wore the standard Konoha flak jacket over her light-coloured outfit and shuriken-patterned apron skirt.[6]

Abilities

As a medical-nin, Rin's primary duty on missions was to give support to her team-mates which she did with great aptitude and was even able to teach her team-mates basic first aid. Despite her age, she displayed great skill with medical ninjutsu able to aid her team on a high-ranked missions during the Third Shinobi World War as well as successfully implant Obito's left Sharingan into Kakashi's eye socket in a short period of time and with only basic medical tools. Rin's will is also incredibly strong as she was able to resist leaking any information when under Kakkō's genjutsu.[13]

Stats

Legacy

Rin's death, much like the deaths of every person dear to him, affected Kakashi but more so as she both loved him and he killed her with his own hand. Even on the verge of death himself during Pain's invasion, Kakashi lamented on how he failed to protect her and said he was going to see her alongside the rest of their team.[14] When her death was brought up much later, Kakashi was visibly stunned, to the point of being unable to move.[15]

Rin's death also had a deep impact on Obito, who had survived the cave-in and watched it unfold from afar. The trauma of this event caused both him, and Kakashi to awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan, and while Kakashi passed out, Obito violently slaughtered the Kirigakure ninja with his new-found powers.[7] The sight of Rin's corpse drove Obito into embracing his clan's Curse of Hatred, with reality itself for allowing such a system to permit senseless deaths as the object of his loathing, and the motivation to carry out Madara Uchiha's Eye of the Moon Plan — to create a world where heroes did not have to stand over graves and make pitiful excuses.[16] He also noted that despite this reason, he did not blame Kakashi for her death, because of the insignificant reality they were in which was about to disappear, once his plan was complete.[17] Nevertheless, he seemed infuriated when Kakashi mentioned Rin, and responded with brutality.[18]

All in all, Rin died a loyal shinobi to her village, despite being kidnapped and made a jinchūriki in an attempt to wreak chaos on Konoha by Kirigakure. She chose to die rather than even risk bringing destruction to her home, exemplifying the Will of Fire inherited by the generation of Konoha shinobi.[19]

Trivia

Rin (リン) can have various meanings, such as "dignified", "severe", or "cold". Her last name Nohara (のはら) means "field".

Rin's favourite food was strawberries, while her least favourite was tsukudani.

Her favourite word was "friendship" (友愛, yūai).

Her hobby was collecting shells.

Rin is the first known jinchūriki to have died without the tailed beast being extracted or being directly responsible for the jinchūriki's death. As such, Isobu is the first known tailed beast to have "died".

Quotes

(To Obito) "It's not good to hide your wounds, you know. I'm looking after you."[20]

(To Obito) "Do your best Obito! Become a cool Hokage and let me see how you save the world! It's a promise."[21]